


Lessons and Learnings

by stuffbyshelbyfics



Series: Witchy Pines [7]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 02:52:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffbyshelbyfics/pseuds/stuffbyshelbyfics
Summary: Dipper receives some comfort.





	Lessons and Learnings

Visitors to the Mystery Shack had quickly learned of the magical potential of its residents, and had learned to act accordingly. True, there was the occasional pitchfork-armed mob headed by Farmer Sprott, but those had died down as of late due to Stan’s tendency to fling the hurled torches back at the perpetrators, inevitably with interest in the form of more fire. On most weeks, guests were politely curious, but the events of the past few days had lowered visitor rates to next to nothing. It wasn’t easy to stay undeterred by the raucous arguing among the elder Pines twins.

The prolonged, ridiculous incident had begun when Stan had taken it into his head to use his adeptness in mental manipulation - usually only a power Ford would use in the direst of moments - to make his brother forget the existence of the number four. What was already a bad situation was made worse by the fact that Ford didn’t notice until he’d tried to go through his nightly meditation, had counted his fingers to calm himself, and had come up with a higher number than usual. Dipper and Mabel had been kept up that night by the intermittent laughter and outraged screaming, with Stan offering to reveal what had happened between wheezes and Ford furiously refusing, determined to figure it out on his own.

The next day had been more peaceful, with the family going about their usual transactions with the visiting tourists. The sunset, however, brought more tension (and mirth to Stanley) when Ford’s evening equations came out consistently wrong for no visible reason. That day’s quarreling had only been ended by Mabel, who had gone with Dipper’s blessing to slip sleep-inducing herbs in the brothers’ drinks. Stan had awoken with her sitting cross-legged on his chest, giving him a look that indicated that the game was up. He’d lifted the spell, and life had returned to normal.

An outcome of the Ford hadn’t expected had turned out to be Dipper approaching him, asking for lessons on how to resist hypnosis. The boy had found him in the basement, embarrassingly correcting his jumbled equations, and had brought up the idea there.

“Are you sure?” Ford raised a grey eyebrow. “I don’t think I’m the person you should be asking about that, seeing what Stan did to me. Don’t you want to ask him?”

Dipper averted his formerly eager gaze, apparently uneasy. “I… don’t entirely trust Stan with that kind of stuff,” he admitted, “He might try to make me forget how to drink water or something.”

Stanford privately reflected that his brother’s prowess at rearranging memories was slightly unnerving, considering his history with the topic. He’d have to get to the bottom of that someday.

“Besides,” Dipper went on, “this is important.”

Ford raised his other eyebrow, curious. “How so?”

“Well, what if Mabel and I are kidnapped by some other witch? If they try to make us do what they want, we’re gonna need to know how to withstand that kind of stuff,” Dipper explained, slightly nervously, his small hands twisting around themselves. “I just wanna know how protect myself and Mabel.”

Ford rubbed his chin, thoughtfully eyeing his great-nephew. “Alright,” he conceded, “Let me see what we can do.”

He stood up and pushed his rolling chair aside, striding over to the growing spread of D and D and More D statistical graphs with Dipper trailing behind, and sat down on one side, gesturing for the boy to sit opposite him. Satisfied with the setup, Ford instructed Dipper to make eye contact and focus his mind, and thus the lesson began.

 

An hour later, not much progress had been made. Whenever Ford tried to raise the strength of his hypnotic gaze, Dipper always faltered and fell under his spell. Minor hexes were met with suitable resistance, but it was the real trance-inducing spells that seemed to be the problem. As he snapped his fingers to break Dipper out of his daze for the umpteenth time, Ford began to suspect that the problem was not a lack of skill, but rather a lack of focus. With each retry, Dipper was getting more and more flustered and distracted. Finally Ford called a break and let the boy go get some water, musing on what he might ask him upon his return as Dipper’s weary footsteps receded up the stairs.

“Is everything alright, my boy?”

Dipper’s eyes opened, and he stopped his attempts at calming himself through slow, deep breaths. He focused blearily on his great-uncle sitting cross-legged opposite him, and wondered how he could explain.

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, sighing, “I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is there anything you want me to help you with?”

“No, it’s okay. School’s just been getting a little hard, that’s all.”

“Well, that’s -” Ford started, and then stopped. Dipper’s face had scrunched up, and tears were beginning to fall. He stayed silent as his great-nephew began to cry, waiting for him to speak again.

“I hate it,” Dipper sobbed, “I hate not knowing whether the administration cares about us or not. I hate that people still think Mabel and I are f-freaks. I have to stay up late lots of nights and they s-still give us more work…”

“I’m sorry,” Ford spoke quietly.

Dipper wiped his eyes and running nose. “I just want to be able to stay calm, but the spells I try to cast aren’t working anymore and I don’t know why. I thought learning this stuff could help, but I just don’t think I’m good at it anymore.” He started in surprise as Ford gently put two fingers under his chin, lifting it slightly.

“Mason,” he murmured, “Please listen to me. You’re one of the most hardworking, selfless people I’ve ever had the honor to meet. You should believe me when I say that I know you have the potential to succeed academically, but you can always take a break if you’re feeling overwhelmed. You don’t have to let it make you feel like less of a person, because that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Dipper’s eyes welled up again, and he pulled himself across the piles of graph paper into his great-uncle’s arms. Ford cradled the boy, tenderly wiping his tears away and pressing their foreheads together. It felt like far too short a time before Ford set Dipper down on the floor in front of him, shuffling the papers aside.

“Do you think you could give it one more shot?”

Dipper nodded, giving a watery smile. “I’ll try.”

Ford thought for a moment, scratching his scalp. “Actually, there’s something I want you to do this time - don’t fight the spell, alright?”

The boy chuckled through his tears, hesitantly tilting his head. “Doesn’t that seem kind of counterintuitive, Grunkle Ford?”

“Trust me, what you need now is some real rest. This’ll get you back on the habit of relaxing again, and soon you’ll be feeling better about school.”

“Okay,” Dipper nodded. “I’ll do it.”

Their gazes met once again, and instead of desperate resistance there was just love and understanding between the two of them. Dipper’s head soon began to nod, and Ford rested his palm on his round cheek as he scooted forward to support his great-nephew. He gently stroked the boy’s drooping eyelids until they fluttered closed, and pulled him into his lap again as Dipper went limp. A drowsy smile spread across his face as he was rocked back and forth, and Ford’s voice dropped to a low purr as he leaned forward to murmur:

“You are safe. You are loved. You are enough.” A quiet mantra that repeated from him to Dipper and back again into the endless hours ahead, it wrapped around both of them and surrounded them with warmth. Finally Ford raised his head and found Dipper fast asleep, curled up and safe in his arms. Smiling, he brushed his great-nephew’s hair aside and took him upstairs, back to a world of comfort and light that loved them both.


End file.
